Only 1 in 5 students say they will vote in the upcoming CUSU elections, a poll conducted by Varsity has found.

It was revealed earlier this week that no candidates will run for two permanent salaried sabbatical positions of CUSU co-ordinator and welfare & rights officer, while three positions are uncontested. These include the Presidential candidate, Helen Hoogewerf-McComb, as well as the candidates for women’s officer and education officer.

Flick Osborn, the current CUSU president, said it was "disappointing" that there are fewer nominations for CUSU-GU sabbatical positions than in previous years: "CUSU have trialled many new methods of engaging with students about elections this year."

The publicity campaign for the elections consisted primarily of a depiction of a goldfish jumping into a larger bowl. Posters of the cartoon were displayed in CUSU’s office and on its website.

The poll of 192 students suggests that 14 per cent of students do not know what CUSU is, and 26 per cent did not know the difference between CUSU and the Cambridge Union Society. One first-year student from Jesus said: “I love CUSU because they got me to meet Russell Brand.”

Two thirds of students surveyed did not know the name of the current CUSU preisdent, while 90 per cent of students said they were unaware of how CUSU has affected them this year.

However, Osborn argues that "many students have engaged positively with CUSU" this year. She said that CUSU has "consistently worked on issues that students really care about", citing the Living Wage campaign, the campaign on socially responsible investment and the petition against the government's immigration bill signed by 1000 students.

George Thomas, president of the JCR at Peterhouse – which remains affiliated to CUSU – cites the “decentralised nature of the Cambridge colleges and their respective JCRs” as the main reason for the lack of student engagement with CUSU.

He said: “A lot of the work CUSU does is with JCR committee members rather than students themselves. Absence of engagement from the majority of students should therefore come as no surprise.”

Rachael Anderson, a first-year student at Jesus, said: “I wish CUSU would reach out more at a college level. They’re too distant and no-one’s quite sure what they do.”

The poll also uncovered rife scepticism over CUSU’s 2013-14 budget, which forecasts a expenditure of £674,244.65 this year. 18 per cent of respondents thought that the expenditure was not worth it, and three quarters of students did not think that they knew enough about CUSU to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Only 7 per cent of respondents thought the money was being well spent.

Max Odenghar, a third-year student at Trinity, is not surprised at the lack of student interest: “If they [CUSU] spend time telling us what they do rather than just spending money, we’d all have a better idea of what to think of them.”

Ivan Tchernev, President of King’s College Student Union, is more positive about CUSU, though he is “saddened by the lack of interest in sabbatical positions.”

He said: “Any institution that gives out free condoms to all its students is clearly doing something right.

“CUSU has an image problem, and one that’s hard to overcome. CUSU has to deal with all of the problems of student apathy, and has none of the local appeal to alleviate it.

“That means that even when they accomplish amazing, excellent things, students just don’t hear about it. The lack of interest in the [sabbatical] positions is symptomatic of that lack of engagement. CUSU is vital, students just don’t realise it.”

Hoogewerf-McComb, the sole presidential candidate, said: “CUSU did a lot to publicise these elections…I honestly wish that CUSU President was contested.

“CUSU needs to be better at engaging all students, but also at empowering and inspiring new student leaders so that they feel like they can stand for sabbatical positions.”

Rob Richardson, who is running uncontested for Education Officer, regretted the lack of nominations, but said “running uncontested does not really alter anything within the campaign process." He believes that “engagement is a two-way affair,” and that “The high proportion of uncontested positions could be purely circumstantial.”

The main campaign hustings will take place at 4pm on Saturday 1 March in the University Centre on Granta Place.